


take back

by down



Category: Magic Knight Rayearth
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon - Anime, Community: trope_bingo, Eagle is NOT PLEASED, M/M, so he's turned up to stop it, with Lantis's terrible plan that doesn't appear to have a happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 14:43:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16431407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/down/pseuds/down
Summary: Eagle is not having any of this.





	take back

**Author's Note:**

> For trope-bingo: reunion. 
> 
> This fell out of my head onto paper in one flurried moment one night, and my lovely wife typed it in for me. 
> 
> One day I will write the full anime canon-divergent fic where Eagle turns up to get his husband back. This is not that fic. This is Eagle stealing my fingers to yell at Lantis.

It was easy, in the end, taking Lantis prisoner. He'd come to face Eagle alone, for the girl, and it was little matter to Eagle that she ended up escaping back to Cephiro - he hadn't come for her. She'd hesitated, when he had Lantis snared in the energy-whip, and he was fairly certain Lantis had told her to leave, he would be fine - Eagle hadn't been able to hear over the roar of anger in his chest which finally, _finally_ , had its target in sight.

The girl - and Eagle did believe this one was a girl as she seemed - had looked straight through Eagle. Quite what she was, he didn't know, and he wasn't certain he wanted to. But she left, and then it was just the two of them and the blaring alarms.

Lantis stared him down, any hint of expression wiped from his face, with his arms pinned to his sides and his sword well out of his reach. He was at Eagle's mercy, and yet he had the fucking _temerity_ to stand there before Eagle's rage and say "You said you would let me go."

Eagle's vision fizzled into black static for a moment and he heard a noise which didn't sound human - a growl and a cry which must have come from his chest. He yanked on the whip, bringing Lantis crashing to his knees before him. "I _did_ let you go," he hissed, and there were cracks in Lantis's facade now, the perfect veneer breaking away. "I never said I wouldn't come and take you back."

Geo broke in then, to Eagle's relief and disappointment all in one steady package. Eagle needed to breathe, needed to calm, before he expended all that remained of his strength on not murdering Lantis himself. So when Geo walked cautiously to Lantis's side, the fighters he'd brought spreading about the room in a safety net Lantis had no way of escaping, Eagle nodded to the electroshock device already in Geo's hand. "Knock him out," he ordered, and his voice didn't even shake.

It took three long seconds for the shock to take effect. Lantis kept his eyes locked with Eagle's the whole time, and he couldn't look away, not until Lantis hit the deck in a limp, inelegant pile.

A snap of his wrist withdrew the whip, and Eagle fastened it away, distantly aware his hands were shaking. "Make him secure," he ordered Geo's waiting silence. He'd half expected a protest, but Geo just nodded grimly and pulled a set of shackles from his belt.

Turning and walking away was the hardest thing Eagle had done since taking his arms from around Lantis that last evening, watching him go.

oOo

There were ways of blocking the expression of mental energy. Magic, at least the Cephiran kind, seemed close enough the same measures should work on it too. Particularly after he'd handed Zazu every last scrap of data he had on Lantis, even the biometric scans from their home, and told him to make some modifications.

Still, the theory had never been tested, and none of them were taking any chances. When Eagle finally entered the room they'd st aside for this prisoner, Lantis was manacled at the wrists and ankles, chained to the bench which doubled as a bed. He was awake, and from the flat glare Eagle got, had been waiting some time.

Three and a half months he'd been living with the sudden pain in his chest, and part of him still wanted nothing more than to cry with relief at seeing that dour face again.

The bitter taste in his mouth was stronger.

Behind him, the door slid shut, and Lantis did stir a little at that. "No escort?" he asked, voice level.

"Why, what are you planning on doing?" Eagle asked, forcing a smile onto his face. His muscles knew the shape they should make, but it was still wrong. "If you try to escape, there are people posted on the other side of every wall, and the ceiling, and the floor. Where are you planning on going?"

"If I took you hostage, they would let me through."

"If you took me hostage, they have _very clear_ orders to knock us _both_ out, and when we come around, I will have a nice cup of tea to ease my headache, and you will be in more chains than you are now." The only other furniture in the room was a stool, out of Lantis's reach. Eagle pulled it over and sat down, arms folded, back against the wall. His smiled dropped. "Don't be foolish, Lantis. You know me better than that."

"Why?" Lantis demanded, voice trebling in volume, chains clanking as he jolted in his seat, trying to stand but unable to. "You let me go! Why come after me?"

Three and a half months ago, Eagle had stood with a breaking heart, and let Lantis go. One week later, he'd woken in a cold sweat with the sudden sharp knowledge Lantis didn't mean to survive. Three months of nightmares, of pushing first the politicians, then his ship and his crew, all the time fearing he would be too late - that the star on the horizon would blaze up one last time and die out - it slammed down on Eagle all at once, and he half choked on it.

"You gave me your promise!"

Lantis flinched at that, turning his face away. "I made my vow when I thought I was free to," he muttered. "But I gave my word to Cephiro long before we met, Eagle-"

"You gave me your promise," Eagle spat at him, a small part of him crowing in petty, vicious victory to see Lantis wince again and close his eyes. "Your life is not just yours to spend anymore! Then you promised to come back to me - how were you planning on doing that? In your next life?"

"Eagle-"

"Cephiro cannot have you!" Eagle snapped at him, over whatever he might have said. "No, Cephiro _will not_ have you."

"I have to end it! The Pillar system, the magic knights-"

Reaching out, Eagle grabbed Lantis's chin with one hand, forcing him to meet Eagle's look without turning aside, so he would be absolutely certain Eagle meant every word. "You lied to me. You said you would come home, with no intent of doing so. So you owe me, Lantis. And I'm going to take Cephiro to pay your debt."

"You - no, Eagle-"

"I'm sure our scientists will find a way of using the knowledge from studying your cursed Pillar system to save Autozam," Eagle continued, his voice dropping low and bitingly soft. "Won't that be fitting? It looks as though I'll be fighting Chizeta and Fahren for the honour of defeating your broken home, but I promise they won't stop me."

"Eagle!"

" _I_ will end the legend of those magic knights. I'll end the legend of Cephiro at the same time." 

Eagle let got and stood, pushing the stool back into the corner, and let himself out, all the while ignoring Lantis's shouting at his back. He held his composure all the way back to the Officer's mess, where Geo waited alone, then he crumpled, shaking, tears hot on his face and his hands in fists even as Geo pulled him into an embrace.

"They won't have him," he vowed, forehead pressed to the steady warmth of Geo's chest. "I can't let them. I can't let him kill himself-"

"I know," Geo said, quietly holding on. "I know."


End file.
